Yeah, sorry, the first link's a little vague. Danny's is more specific, but this one

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=17377

has the specific passage I was referring to, namely

"The panel ended with Stan Lee and Grant Morrison being put on the spot by a fan who asked them to create a character together, on stage. After a bit of laughter and tentative discussion, Morrison said, "I think we should get paid for it, don't you, Stan?" And both of them declared that they'd work together to create a new character for Virgin. A new superhero, created by Lee and Morrison, who would reflect the 21st century."

Like I said, it seems pretty spontaneous and jovial, and it's certainly not like any contracts have been signed. But still. Yes.

I've been seeing the ad in recent Virgin comics announcing the Stan Lee stuff and I just need to know why anyone thinks Stan Lee is viable in terms of creating new characters and titles? He got a bunch of hype over the DC books, but has anything he's created or written in the past 15 years sold? Or received any sort of critical acclaim?

Virgin's done a bunch of neat, cool and interesting things the past few years. The Stan Lee thing just seems like a giant step backwards for them. I don't mean to sound like a dick, or a Stan Lee hater or anything, this just seems off...I don't know... Maybe I should keep my head-scratching on this to myself.

Virgin's done a bunch of neat, cool and interesting things the past few years. The Stan Lee thing just seems like a giant step backwards for them.

I would say that something like this fits perfectly into Virgin's M.O. - find a recognizable name, have them give a sketchy outline for an idea of a series (if that), and then hire professional comic book writers and artists to make a comic book out of it while promoting it with the recognizable name. In this case it's probably going to me more like Stan Lee writing plot documents which artists then work off of in classic "Marvel-style", but the general goal - producing comics with names that mainstream America recognizes plastered on them - remains the same.